Reliable information on milk yield of each cow and on productivity of different portions of its udder is essential for goal-oriented milk production at animal farms and industrial livestock complexes, selective work on determining fitness of cows for machine milking, provision of science-based feed allowances depending on the productivity and physiological condition of each animal, and also for objective assessment of production results and zootechnic, veterinary and selective work on a dairy herd. Accurate information on milk yield makes it possible to establish optimal production links in controlling dairy farms and also to reveal subclinic forms of quarter troubles. This enables timely examination of cows and prevents contamination of mixed herd milk with milk drawn from diseased animals in machine milking, a factor decreasing losses associated with impaired quality of milk and rejection of diseased animals.
Moreover, individual milk outputs are closely related to many other important functions including milk production and breeding. For example, productivity deviations recorded at a definite stage of the estrous cycle may be one of the indications of cows in estrus.
Automation of milk recording is an urgent problem for collection of data on daily yield of each cow consumes much labour and calls for processing a large body of information.
Another important problem at the present time is to take due account of the properties of the medium under measurement in determining the quantity of milk and also of constructional features of milk counters and their operating conditions.
Discrepancy between the physical and mathematical models of measurement of separate portions of milk attributable to differences between actual and ideal measuring conditions introduces a noticeable error in determining the quantity of milk drawn from one cow. The afore-mentioned problems may not be solved by the use of the known devices which are generally characterized by low accuracy and ineffectiveness in control of production, breeding and selection at dairy farms.